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This year at NS was a history-making year.
Over the course of about three weeks, the students, faculty, and community raised nearly $6,700 for the Sub for Santa Toy Drive. This is the most money ever made in the 11 years they have been participating in the drive.
“We made history,” SBO Secretary Michael Pearce said.
Sub for Santa is a donation and fundraiser where the community of Sanpete County helps raise money to buy toys and Christmas presents for children in need.
“People can donate whatever they want,” said vice principal Jeff Ericksen. Many people donate money, toys, and the prisoners at the prison even crochet beanies.
With NS, the students are given the privilege to donate money that the SBO’s can then take to go buy toys for the toy drive.
“We go around, we collect this money and then at the end of maybe three weeks, we get the total up and then we go to a big store like Walmart and spend it all,” said Pearce.
On Saturday, SBO’s Mayzie Talbot and Trey Robison got the opportunity to go to the toy drive and hand out the toys to the families.
“It was a really cool experience,” said SBO President Trey Robison. “It was cool to see where the toys were going and just be bake to see the people in the community that are so thankful.”
By the end of the three weeks, the day that the students likely donated the most was the last day of Sub for Santa.
“They know that they are never going to be harassed by us again, so they think, ‘Well I’ll throw in a $20 or a $10,’” said Pearce, “and everyone just wants to feel good about themselves and donate.”
Half of the money NS donated was student raised, while the other half came from the community, but in the end it all makes a huge difference.
“We did have a big significant business donate $2,000,” said Ericksen. “We also had some faculty and staff members that donated significant money.”
NS students ended up donating a little over half of the money made this year.
“Out of the $6,674.02, $3,400 of it was donated by our student body, which is crazy,” said Ericksen.
It’s also a record amount from just the students’ pockets.
The reason for raising more money this year is not quite known. The way that the school has been getting the students to participate in donating is through pledges. The teachers all make pledges saying that they will do something out of the ordinary if the student body can raise so much money.
“We’ve been doing the pledges forever which tries to motivate [the students] to do it,” said Ericksen. “[The pledges] are actually getting kind of old, the teachers are having trouble coming up with new pledges every year.”
Ericksen said that it may just be the students feeling the spirit of Christmas and wanting to help others.
Once all the money is collected and counted for, the SBO’s take it to Walmart and begin shopping for toys that children in need would love for Christmas.
“We buy a lot of kind of smaller toys,” said Pearce, “a lot of stuffed animals and toys that are for younger kids.”
Pearce also says that they buy many toys that are practical and for many age groups. Stuffed animals, coloring books, and pogo sticks are just a few examples.
